'08 Dodge Dakota, Console Fab, Install Pix

Well after 5 years (3 in this truck) my trusty intel single core ITX board has taken a dump. The other day it started acting really funny, not booting, freezing and no video. Pulled it last night and confirmed it was the MoBo. It's sad, almost like a pet died or something. The good news is I think I found a much faster, suitable replacement. I chose this board because of the legacy connectors, 20pin power will fit my m2-atx, and IDE port so I can continue using my IDE SSD. I've also had good luck with gigabyte boards in general. This is the board I ordered

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128452

Also ordered 4 Gb of DDR3 ram, which will be a nice improvement over the 1gb I was currently using.

Now to wait for the UPS man.

New board worked out very good. Xp shows 4 cpu cores, 4gb of ddr3, better video, more USB and serial ports, all solid state caps, and it runs cooler than the Intel it replaced. Basically just swapped it out, added a couple drivers, and reset the GPS com port and was back in business. Board also uses 20pin atx so it works well with the m2 power supply. Overall very satisfied and would recommend this board after my initial experience.

More updating. Switched over from my 500gb western digital to a 64Gb usb flash drive for music. The 500 starting skipping and getting sketchy, not bad for 4 years of bumps and vibration though.

New motherboard has been running awesome and has not missed a beat. I love gigabyte motherboards.

I also purchased one of derriks double DIN 7" Samsung touchscreen monitor kits. Has LED back light and better transreflective properties. The bezel design has USB based programmable buttons, and various I/O ports lining the sides. Best of all the screen is CENTERED!! My current Lilliput screen in the bybyte bezel has worked fantastic, little sluggish in the cold until it warms but always reliable. It's just always slightly irritated me that it was off center. OCD, I know. The new kit aims to relax the OCD, and add some nice features and tech upgrades in the process. I'm going to keep the lilliput handy as it has been rock solid, while I install this new style to evaluate it worth. This should also fill out my dash opening a bit better. We shall see!

Nice! I really like the looks of that monitor. Where did you get it?

Also looking forward to some installed pics of the new monitor.

new screen sounds awesome, how much was it? i'm assuming quite a bit with it being transflective and a real Samsung panel...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by liquidh8

Nice! I really like the looks of that monitor. Where did you get it?

Also looking forward to some installed pics of the new monitor.

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http://www.mp3car.com/lcd-display/14...6-s-h-152.html
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2DIN-IN-DASH.../121002169460?

The maker is a user in this forum: 8838.com

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blafrisch

http://www.mp3car.com/lcd-display/14...6-s-h-152.html
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2DIN-IN-DASH.../121002169460?

The maker is a user in this forum: 8838.com

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thanks, that ebay link didn't work for me, but i found his store from his email address: http://www.ebay.com/sch/derrick.ny/m.html

that's appears to be a great deal on the screen... blk02si - please post pics of it in sunlight when you have a chance.

I pulled out the Lilliput and dash bezel to see how it fits. Sad news, it is not a direct bolt in. The protruding dimensions on derriks kit are 100mm, which technically is DD standard, but my dash opening only measures up at 97mm. Just missed it, not by much, but its not going to fit without some mods. I'm going to find another dakota bezel to take the dremel to, I don't want to start trimming up the stock one just yet. In the meantime I'll plug this new screen into my laptop and play around with it.

On another note I got some rubber USB dust covers as mentioned prior in the thread to protect the console port. Also got a pic of where I relocated my HD tuner to.

For now I reinstalled the Lilliput , although I trimmed up the mounting kit some to make it more flush and used some weather stripping to take care of a rattle in the dash that surfaced after 54k miles. Now to search for a doner bezel...